Arthur's Stylist
by Avaloner
Summary: Lily is looking for work in Camelot when she sees the prince of Camelot walk by. Being obliviously historically inaccurate, she finds her true calling: to be Arthur's stylist.
1. Chapter 1

One

Camelot was a busy place. The citadel looked like it needed a lot of taking care of. Surely it equally took a lot of people to take care of it? Meaning this was the ideal place to look for work, Lily thought, as she took one optimistic step after another. With each step the grey-white building started getting closer and closer, more spectacular and more intimidating.

But still, the girl was going to continue. Until she had to come to a stop –she was moving with the swarming crowd until they seemed to halt in their tracks and part. Lily copied them and soon spotted a young man coming down the recently cleared path.

He had a sword by his side but was not in chainmail like the three or four men behind him who made up his entourage. And despite being slightly shorter than them, he stood perfectly tall with broad shoulders back. His face was set in a regal version of blasé as he looked straight ahead. Except when a few of the townsfolk closest to him bowed, his eyes acknowledged them and he made a subtle nod.

 _People were bowing?_ Of course, that must be the prince of Camelot, Lily realised. And as he passed her in his red tunic with dark trousers and boots, she found her true calling: she was going to be Arthur's stylist.


	2. Chapter 2

Two

Merlin felt sorry for the kid. Her village was attacked by Cenred's men and in the conflict she and her orphaned siblings ran in separate directions. The chances of at least one of them surviving looked better that way.

Here she was; the one that ended up in Camelot looking for work.

Merlin remembered a couple of months ago he was in a similar situation as Lily. Except he had connections here in the form of Gaius and knew he'd be taken care of, allowing him to focus on the adventure side of things. She was in a much more precarious situation which is why he wanted to help her out even more. Especially when he could recognise the same look of wonder in her eyes that he knew was in his in those first days here. Being sixteen, she wasn't much younger than him but the look in her eyes seemed more youthful somehow.

But the job she offered herself for was a whole different story. At first, Merlin was completely baffled by what a 'stylist' even meant. But when Lily explained it –most patiently and rationally- he had a sudden urge to see Arthur's face when her proposal was brought to him. Long story short, this was a fine opportunity to annoy the hell out of the prince.

But Merlin didn't want Arthur to get mad at Lily. He had to find some compromise between having his fun and looking out for Lily.

Lily was following Merlin along the hallway an hour or two later –it was afternoon by the position of the sun. She still carried a positive expression on her face, like a mix of enthusiasm and solemnity a boy carried at having the honour of becoming a squire to a knight. She could see a large set of closed doors up ahead with a serious looking, spear holding guard on either side.

Merlin stopped for a moment and turned to face her. "He'll seem perpetually dismissive and won't hold back any insults but," he took a glance at the doors then returned to Lily, "don't get scared, he's been well fed…"

"So His Highness won't eat me then," Lily replied in her sweet-natured way that Merlin almost missed the joke.

"No, he won't!" his face crinkled into a smile which Lily returned. "What I meant is he's usually in a good mood after lunch." Merlin told Lily to wait outside while the two guards let him enter the chamber beyond the doors.

She caught a glimpse of a well-lit room and expensive looking curtains before she faced timber once again.

A few minutes passed which felt way longer and allowed her nerves to finally catch up with her. She almost regretted her decision to find the prince's manservant and explain her wishes when Merlin popped up at the door.

"You can come in," he said excitedly, tilting his head towards the room and her nerves melted away.

"A _stylist_?" Arthur drew out the last word and immediately afterwards fixed Merlin with a glare.

Lily froze.

Arthur seemed kind enough a moment ago when she introduced herself to him. Not without a slightly patronising manner, of course, as he simultaneously finished eating the meat off a bone, dropped the bone on one of the plates without looking, wiped his hands on a piece of cloth before dropping it back down on the table with equal disregard. "Good to make your acquaintance," he had managed to fit in –without much expression- between swallowing the last of the food and taking a gulp or three out of his goblet.

Not the perfect picture of courteous but he didn't seem intimidating either. In fact, he looked a lot more relaxed, now that he was in his private chamber.

But now Lily became a fraction more apprehensive as Merlin explained all that came with Lily humbly-offering-herself-as-his-Royal-Stylist.

"It's the stylist's job to decide what clothes you should wear so that you look more presentable and pleasant in general." Then Merlin added in mock concern, "I felt you're in dire need of such a person."

"Not until I have a dysfunction of the brain."

"Really? I was under the impression you already had one."

Lily looked from one to the other. Was the prince going to explode at the insolence of his servant? And was she to be given some horrible punishment because she started this whole thing?

Apparently not; Merlin still appeared casual, Arthur's discontent seemed to be aimed at him, not her. In fact, it wasn't really discontent, the prince almost seemed amused. "Not yet. Though having to deal with you might bring one about one of these days," he replied confidently. Then he turned to Lily and spoke more sincerely and told her that unfortunately he was unable to appoint her but wished her luck in finding work and regretted the situation in her village.

Merlin showed her out and told her of a few of the vendors in the marketplace who may be able to give her a job. He decided to spare Lily the bad temper of the cook and told her he'll ask the woman himself to see if an extra person was required in the kitchens. Lily thanked him and left, at least glad that the prince was kind to her and Merlin was most helpful.

Arthur stood in front of the window with his arms folded and wasn't watching anything particular when he spotted Lily. She was sitting on one of the steps in the courtyard, looking down at an apple core she was still taking a peck at every now and again. That probably was her lunch, he thought all of a sudden. As if her downtrodden look wasn't already making him feel slightly bad. Especially as he didn't agree with his father's stance of turning a blind eye to the affairs of neighbouring kingdoms. He _wanted_ to do something about people in Lily's situation whose homes keep getting invaded. But he knew Uther would dismiss such an issue in the blink of his stern eyes and would probably manage to make Arthur feel embarrassed that he even brought the issue to his father.

"Merlin."

Merlin paused in polishing the boot in his hand.

"Go and fetch that girl –whatever her name was. She's sitting in the courtyard."

Merlin followed Arthur to the window and saw who he meant. "Yes, sire," he said with a surprised smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Three

As it turned out Merlin had already made sure Lily had lunch –obtaining it for her, including the apple, when he went to enquire in the kitchens. Unfortunately no work was available there and the other places he had suggested also proved dead ends for Lily. Which meant he would have felt bad too if Arthur didn't change his mind about employing her.

"Only temporarily," Arthur stressed, quieting Lily's gushing words of gratitude.

Lily began work the next morning with the utmost seriousness. Arthur had allocated her his time while he breakfasted and she began without delay. Step one was to catalogue the prince's current collection of clothes.

Merlin opened Arthur's wardrobe and Lily began taking notes, brows almost furrowed, immersed in her work as if she and her parchment were the only things that mattered in the room.

From the table behind her Arthur gave Merlin a look of confusion in between chewing. Merlin returned a mild shrug; neither men had seen a stylist at work before.

"Right then…" Lily began.

"Oh you haven't seen the ones at the obscure depths yet," Merlin remarked. "This," he gestured with his arm at the neat stacks of clothes, "is the result of time and effort. Then his-royal-untidiness begins rummaging," he pulled out several articles of clothing from the back which looked like they were surely rummaged, "and I have to start over again."

"Merlin, stop overwhelming the girl," came Arthur's voice from the table.

Lily took note of these clothes also while Merlin took the opportunity to fold and stack them with the rest of the clothes.

"I have noticed you don't have much colour here," Lily turned to Arthur and spoke studiously. She was right. Dark trousers aside, most of his other clothes were in shades of brown and grey, with the occasional shot of red; for patriotic reasons obviously, considering red represented Camelot. The jackets were equally without character, different to the tunics mainly in the density of the material.

"I just wear whatever the tailor has come up with."

"I shall consult with the tailor and see what we can do," Lily spoke in a formal tone and smiled, clasping her hands in front of her while holding the parchments neatly.

Lily disappeared for the next three or four days but Merlin and Arthur bumped into her every now and again. She would stop to greet them before moving busily to one of the stalls in the marketplace or scribbling something down or carrying a bundle of material.

The next time Lily met with Arthur she was followed into his chamber by Merlin, whose arms sandwiched a fairly large stack of folded clothes.

Lily explained the stack in her usual sunny manner.

"I have to try _all_ of them?" Arthur's eyes went from the stack to Lily, widening in the process. "I mean, the tailor has my measurements; they should all fit…"

"It would be useful for seeing which piece goes well with which –and you know, for generally ascertaining what your style should be."

Arthur gave Merlin, standing behind the girl, a stunned look. Apparently people needed to try clothes for other than the purpose of determining if they're the right size.

Merlin gave a casual smile and a little shrug like nothing unusual was happening.

Lily sat on a stool some way off from the changing screen where Arthur disappeared with the bundle of clothes.

Merlin was bringing the contents of Arthur's table to order as Lily consulted her notes next to him. "You put a lot of effort," he said observing the notes. She had perfect sketches of jackets and vests with neat labels and occasionally even had small squares of material pasted next to the drawings.

Lily looked up at Merlin to meet his smile and returned it. Her eyes were on the paper again as she spoke, "I was always told off for it! When I used to suggest how my mother should sew our clothes, that is. Or if I experimented with a new design when I was doing the sewing. I mean, we only rarely got new clothes and hardly any interesting materials but…" she looked to him again. "The idea of designing and putting clothes together just always excited me." She had a rather embarrassed air as she continued. "But I can see why people think it's silly and a waste of time."

"It's good to be passionate about something though. Even if it seems nothing will come of it," Merlin paused in his work, "it's yours to keep. It makes you who you are."

Arthur's voice came in just then. "The jacket's fine. But _this_ is girly." Wearing one of the new jackets, he held up a tunic in front of him –the next article in line to be tried on.

"There's nothing wrong with a boysenberry coloured tunic," Lily said innocently. "You'll make it work, trust me!"

Arthur still had a semi-scowl on his face upon wearing the tunic in question but Lily smiled encouragingly and rested her case.

Arthur went back and forth, appearing from behind the screen in a new article of clothing, occasionally forgetting to put on a begrudging expression.

On he went, through the dark brown tunic, the red jacket with the upturned collar, a brown long coat…

" _Does it need to be this long?"_

" _It's what all the lords are wearing this season, I've been told. I think it looks great."_

Arthur appeared in a rich blue tunic with a dark brown leather vest just then.

"Yay, the blue tunic!" said Lily like a child might say _'yay, juggling!'_ "It looks as excellent as I hoped and it brings out your eyes."

Arthur returned a quizzical face. "I think I'd like my eyes to remain exactly where they are…" he muttered.

Merlin snorted a laugh and Lily smiled up at him with a shrug.

Lily gathered her documents neatly on her lap, happy her efforts paid off. "This reminds me of Barbie…" she said happily.

"Who's Barbie?" Arthur reappeared from the screen just then, donning on a dark blue velvet jacket with a red lining.

"Oh, she was this girl in our village who was one of the few that actually approved of my fashion adventures. She would enthusiastically try out any new dress I would make her or add things to one of her old dresses…"

Arthur turned back to the screen again with a treacherously perplexed expression.

"Did you hear that, Arthur?" Merlin would not let this one go so easily, "she said you remind her of a _girl_ from her village."

No words from behind the screen. Perhaps _Arthur_ decided to let this one go.

With eyes wide, Lily popped her head up like a startled mouse. "I had not meant to offend His Highness…"

Arthur returned just then, all forgotten and forgiven apparently by the look of the straight face he wore. He thanked Lily for her services and dismissed her for the day. "Oh and Merlin, tidy up the clothes, will you?"

Lily bowed and smiled and took her leave. Merlin and Arthur returned the smile and the latter headed towards the table while the other reached the changing screen.

The small amount of floor space behind the screen was thoroughly used up by the jumble-tumble of clothes. It wasn't that Merlin had the task of merely folding the articles and storing them, he had to untangle them from each other first. He swore he could even see some of Arthur's other clothes thrown into the clothing melee.

Merlin stared at the mess and absentmindedly scratched his head. No, Arthur hadn't let that last jibe go.


	4. Chapter 4

Four

It was three weeks into her job that Lily faced the chance of getting the sack. Except it wasn't from Arthur but rather Uther. And it wasn't the sack, rather it was eviction from Camelot.

The annual budget and census was being conducted by the court officials which meant that everyone within the citadel of Camelot had to be accounted for. Which meant any extra person in one of the general servants' quarters better have an explanation for being there. Perhaps any other day the official in charge of the census would have dismissed this new 'Lily' –on record as being an assistant seamstress. But this year Uther had strongly briefed the officials that any suspicions of anomalies were to be sent straight to him. After all, Camelot's enemies were never far away.

So when Arthur was handed the task by his father to investigate this new arrival in Camelot, he had to invent a story since Lily's actual job wouldn't make a shred of sense to Uther. Worse, it would probably make him even more suspicious. Lily was informed of the situation and was rather scared to hear of it. But Arthur had assured her a suitable story was being concocted as they spoke. Upon which he looked at Merlin with a jolly expression.

They discussed perhaps she can pretend to be the tailor's niece or god daughter or something and say that she needed to stay here for a while. But then Uther might take it up with the tailor. Then Merlin thought of convincing Morgana to pretend that Lily was _her_ stylist.

The first time Lily had seen Morgana, she was wearing a purple affair –a mauve silk dress overlain with a rich plum coloured dress. Lily had been gushing over the lady's wardrobe ever since and commented on how she thought a new dress of hers looked beautiful. Merlin would occasionally agree saying that Morgana looked beautiful in the said dress, with a smile he thought no one saw.

If she had known there was a Lady Morgana, she would have begged to be her stylist instead. If only she could have worked on a noble _lady_ 's outfits –there were a lot more possibilities, with the interplay of silks and velvets and rich hues, gilt with embroidery of silver and golden threads. And that was _before_ Lily thought of jewellery options.

Lily did make enquiries about the position of Morgana's stylist but was politely informed that Morgana and Gwen usually took care of the former's clothes themselves. And seeing as she was already employed it didn't matter too much. When she first introduced herself to them there was a bit of a confusion about that though.

Morgana and Gwen looked at each other curiously wondering what a stylist was then the lady politely asked the very question. Lily had told her happily, "oh I have to dress the prince so that he looks his best at court and for important feasts and…"

Gwen looked somewhat horrified. Morgana kept her smile but furrowed her brows.

"Ah, isn't that what a manservant does?" Gwen asked with an awkward smile.

"Oh no, I meant…" they took it quite literally, to Lily's embarrassment. "I _select_ the clothes for him, that is."

The two young women understood. "Arthur does need the help of someone like you," Morgana commented. The other two gave small laughs in agreement. "What? He does."

Gwen and Morgana were more than happy to converse with Lily on the topic of her fashion adventures ever since.

That week Arthur had reported to Uther about what he had found out in his investigation including the fact that the new girl Lily was assisting Guinevere in her work as Morgana's seamstress. Uther was unmoved and made a comment about how Camelot needed to be careful about who it employs and gives accommodation to as they do have a budget to adhere to.

Arthur relayed the situation to Lily. Uther's ambiguous response was unhelpful especially since she was looking forward to taking on her next assignment –to style Arthur for his first date.


	5. Chapter 5

Five

Despite the casual breakfast setting Uther was in Questioning Mode while talking to Arthur and Morgana. "The tailor's account says that this girl was authorised by you," he gave Arthur a stern look. "Why would you send one of Morgana's servants on an errand for yourself?" The king continued munching a piece of apple just as fiercely as he was holding this discussion.

Both the king's son and ward looked a fraction nervous, trying to think of ways to validate Lily's position.

"Because…. My own servant," Arthur began, taking a glimpse at Merlin who standing by on one side with his hands clasped behind him, "is often inefficient at carrying out errands that I give him. No offence, Merlin."

Merlin raised his brows briefly and gave a quick smile, as if to say ' _none taken_ '. Though considering in this case he did know the cause behind Arthur's insult, no offence was indeed taken.

Uther continued in his somewhat severe manner and commented how they should consider cutting down jobs, implying sacking people like Lily.

Morgana decided to use her sweet-daughter-figure appeal just then to handle the situation. "I only hired the girl temporarily so that Gwen isn't overworked, with the extra sewing orders she has to take on from some of the other ladies of the court. Besides," Morgana smiled radiantly at Uther, "Lily is such an enthusiastic and sweet girl; she's been such a good company to us."

"It's _not_ a 'first date'," Arthur made sure to emphasise each word, attempting to convey annoyance.

It was Merlin who had suggested that Arthur's planned outing with the visiting princess Sophia meant a lot because the prince didn't usually deviate from his schedule and take girls out. He was being sympathetic and was cheering the prince on in his courting of Sophia. Arthur, however, took it as an insult. Well, there was a hint of a taunt from Merlin, but for the most part that comment meant well.

"Aww, it's your first date," Lily had sympathised.

The two young men looked at her, clueless. She explained what she meant and had promptly received Arthur's denial.

"I have had outings with ladies before," Arthur continued, like the contrary to what he said was most ridiculous. He made no eye contact however as he fidgeted with some parchments on his table.

"You mean how every time a noble young lady visits Camelot and the king gives you the duty of giving her a tour of the castle?" Merlin looked up innocently.

"Well I…" Arthur said the rest in a bit of a confused mutter, "talk to girls at feasts." That was true, he was quite charming at making acquaintances with ladies of the court and the visiting ones alike and in asking how they enjoyed the feast or something or other.

"Yeah," Merlin agreed then added, "but then you're too scared to ask them out outside of the feasts."

" _Merlin_ ," Arthur looked just a tiny bit incensed with slightly bulging eyes.

But Merlin was right. Arthur spent most of the feasts jesting about with his knights; the conversations with the ladies were brief.

Arthur returned to a more calm expression, "anymore talk of matters of the heart and I will start snoring where I stand."

Wiping the near-giggle from her face, Lily got to work and started pairing jackets with tunics for Arthur to wear. "Now, we should also think about accessorising. For example," Lily pulled out a wide leather belt with a crouching golden dragon painted on it "try this belt. I had one of the artisans create the dragon. He did an excellent job."

Arthur picked it up and agreed in a half nod.

"And it represents the coat of arms too," Lily continued. "Though I must add, that ring of yours was a great choice-"

Arthur stiffened. "That's not 'accessorising'" he cut her off.

Lily looked up at the prince, wondering what was wrong.

A dark look came over Arthur's face. Merlin paused what he was doing and looked up also.

The prince remained quiet and looked across the floor. "It's my mother's ring," he finally said.

Lily nodded understandingly.

Arthur lightened a little as he continued, fingering the ring on his left hand "my father doesn't like talking about her much. I guess I have to have other ways to remember her by." He turned around afterwards and was looking out of the window while the other two resumed their work.

Lily had finalised her selection of clothes for the outing and got up to take it up to Arthur. She noticed his lips were in a smile now. Curious, she followed his gaze down to the courtyard. It was the lady Sophia. "Oh I love that cloak of hers," Lily chimed, "it's like it's made of fairy dust."

Arthur parted his lips slightly, he was about to say _it's like all of her is made of fairy dust_. He stopped himself though. Since 'fairy' was an umbrella term for a number of different magical creatures, whom he was not supposed to speak about let alone speak about admiringly. Also he would have sounded like an utter idiot. He gave a small cough and assumed a formal expression and turned to Lily for her to present whatever she came to him to present.

Lily tried a cough but the prince and his manservant still hadn't noticed her at the door and continued conversing.

"…where did you say you stopped me?"

"Ah…" Merlin thought for a while, as if he was making up certain parts as he went. "You and Sophia were mounting your horses. Oh and her father too."

"Right." Arthur had a distracted air as he extracted his hand from his glove.

Last week was rather eventful and -Lily was pretty sure she wasn't the only one to think- quite amusing. Merlin certainly looked amused. What started as Arthur somewhat secretly courting Sophia quickly turned into him asking for the king's permission to marry the lady in front of the entire court. Uther had also declined to give his blessings. In front of the entire court. The following day Sophia and her father left, but there were some blurred lines about what really happened –by the sound of the conversation that was taking place presently.

Lily waited for the two to finish. This was taking her mind off the worry that she felt a moment ago when Arthur had summoned her. After all, Uther was still investigating the findings from the census.

"And I was in…?" Arthur was saying.

Merlin raised his eyebrows, trying to figure out what the other meant. "You were in…?"

"Was I in a tunic, in chainmail?" Arthur's voice bore annoyance.

"Oh. Chainmail."

Arthur gave a nod. "Makes me quite confounded to think how you took me out with a lump of wood while I was in armour and all," he looked up in curiosity.

"I'm stronger than I look?"

"I don't know why but those few days while Sophia was here just seem to be somewhat blurry," Arthur narrowed his eyes. "I just remember…" he turned to Merlin, giving in to just a slight amount of sheepishness, "some foolish flirting, I suppose."

"Yeah, flirting. That's probably all you two were doing." Merlin nodded a little too vigorously, as if faking it.

Arthur froze and looked at him, his eyes slightly fearful.

Lily decided to try a knock at that moment, saving the two from awkward silence in the process.

"Ah, Lily," Arthur looked cheery, as if grateful for being interrupted. "I have good news."

And good news it was. Uther had decided to draw a conclusion to the findings during the census and said no more about Lily's employment which meant she could breathe a sigh of relief and keep her job and accommodation at Camelot.


	6. Epilogue

Epilogue

Lily took a deep breath. So many things had changed in these last few weeks. Well, the whole of the last three years had been eventful, now that she thought about it. She had seen a dragon's fury, a medley of magical foes, members of the royal family acting strangely (although she considered one can't exactly act normal if they had sprouted donkey ears all of a sudden). And betrayal.

She wished these last couple of days were a nightmare that everyone would wake from soon and Lady Morgana would not turn out to be the enemy within that she turned out to be. But that wasn't the case.

At least peace befell Camelot today, however temporary it may be. She had learnt of the fall of Cenred and that meant the situation at her village had changed also. In short, she had learnt that she was finally able to return home now.

She had met occasionally with her family over the past years but now they could actually be reunited.

It was mixed emotions for Lily. After all going home meant she had to say goodbye to the people in Camelot who she came to know as friends.

She walked across the courtyard and could see Merlin and Arthur sitting on the stairs to the castle. They were joking around, she could tell. Their expressions brightened up hers too as she prepared to take her leave.

Just then some of Arthur's allies –newly appointed knights pf Camelot it would seem- entered with Gwen. Arthur stood up and helped Gwen down from the horse and… _they kissed_. This brought a smile to Lily's face; she knew something was going on!

All the citizens that were out and about seemed to wear smiles of relief. Arthur and his friends were no different as they chatted with each other in a relaxed manner.

Lily walked up to the gang and was welcomed into the small circle. She was introduced to some new faces after which she told her employer she would like to say her goodbyes.

The other knights chatted amongst themselves while Arthur, Merlin and Gwen stood aside with Lily.

"Well, don't forget to keep the variety," Lily said to Arthur, regarding his wardrobe. "And remember, the blue brings out your eyes."

Arthur flipped his brows up and smiled in amused agreement.

Then Lily turned to Gwen. "You know I always loved your embroidery."

"Thank you."

"And," Lily flicked her smile to Arthur as well, "you must send me news of the wedding. I want to design the bride's dress."

Gwen looked down and beamed. Arthur had his hand around her, "you have my word," he told Lily while smiling at Gwen. This wasn't like his smile for Sophia; it was a more sincere and affectionate one.

Lily stepped in front of Merlin. "I always thought you have an excellent style."

"Thank you…?" Merlin gave her a deliberately confused smile.

"Don't change it, it's iconic!"


End file.
